Jamie Richardson of New York City’s Small Door Veterinary, “Frontline has been around for 25 years now, and it’s not as effective as it was when it first hit the market. Whichever method of prevention you prefer, all our experts agree that you should stick to newer classes of repellents and medications, since ticks have become resistant to certain chemicals over time. Because oral medications kill the ticks instead of just repelling them, they also help prevent future infestations where topical treatments and collars usually don’t. Oral medications absorb into a dog’s bloodstream and then into the tissue fluids just under their skin when a tick bites the dog, the medication in their body is transferred to the tick, which then dies before it has a chance to infect your dog with Lyme or any other illnesses it might be carrying. Most topical treatments and tick collars use insecticides that repel ticks so they jump off your dog’s body before biting them. Tick-prevention medications come in three main categories: oral chews, topical treatments you apply to the skin, and collars embedded with medication to repel ticks. Their favorites take different forms - from chewable pills to topical treatments and wearable collars. To help you find the most effective tick prevention for your dog, we asked veterinarians, plus our own writers and editors, to recommend the products they like best. Still, performing regular tick checks on your dog won’t prevent all bites, which is why veterinarians recommend that dog owners, no matter where they live, consider a preventative treatment (since ticks can also be found in city parks). After a tick bite, if your dog displays any warning symptoms - which include joint pain, limping or lameness, swollen lymph nodes, fever, lethargy, or decreased appetite - Potzler says to speak to your vet as soon as possible, as tick-borne illnesses can be fatal. If you find any ticks, remove them right away with fine-point tweezers or a tick key. Leslie Brooks, a vet advisor for Better Pet, recommends paying close attention to your dog’s face, ears, belly, groin, and feet. This allows you to see down to the skin, even on very furry dogs.” Dr. Jennifer Coates, who serves on the advisory board for Pup Life Today, says the best way to check for ticks is to “run your hands through your dog’s fur against the direction it normally lays. I have learned the hard way that keeping ticks off your dog is an important step in keeping ticks off you and your family, too.īecause ticks can be tiny and easy to miss - deer ticks that carry Lyme disease are often as small as poppy seeds - regular tick checks are essential, especially if you take your dog hiking, play with them in areas with a lot of tall grass, or live in the prime tick country of the Northeast. And just because a tick starts off on your dog doesn’t mean it won’t end up catching a ride into your living room and burrowing its way into your thigh while you watch Love Is Blind on the couch. If unprotected, dogs can contract lots of nasty illnesses from ticks, including Lyme disease, canine ehrlichiosis, canine anaplasmosis, canine babesiosis, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. But now it can be tick season year-round, thanks to warmer winters and growing populations of the deer, mice, and other creatures that ticks love to bury their Lyme-disease-carrying heads in. Tick season used to be a spring and summer thing depending on where you live, you’d typically get a break come late fall, with cold weather killing off a lot of them. If you’ve ever had to remove a fully engorged tick from the folds of skin behind your dog’s ear, you know that keeping the tiny pests at bay is a battle, even in the best of times. Best combination tick and heartworm prevention.
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